‘It’s destroying children’s futures’. One million children dying and many more suffering from impacts of El Niño

February 17, 201610:48pm

Southern and eastern African countries are in crisis with at least one million children dying and millions more suffering acute malnourishment as a result of droughts and floods caused by the El Niño, according to UNICEF. Picture: UNICEF

ONE million children are dying as a result of severe weather conditions caused by the El Niño with millions more suffering and at risk of famine and disease.

Charity organisation UNICEF announced in South Africa today that an estimated one million children were in urgent need of emergency treatment for severe acute malnutrition in Eastern and southern Africa following extreme droughts and floods brought on by the El Niño.

Lesotho, Zimbabwe and most provinces in South Africa have declared a state of disaster in the face of growing resource shortages. Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan are just some of the African countries also hardest hit.

Malawi is facing the worst food crisis in nine years, with cases of severe acute malnutrition jumping by 100 per cent in just two months, from December 2015 to January 2016, according to UNICEF.

UNICEF Australia’s Head of International Programs Felicity Wever said widespread severe acute malnutrition has created a medical emergency across southern and eastern Africa.

Ms Wever said an increasing number of children under the age of five were suffering potentially fatal conditions as a result of food and water shortages.

“The shortages have created a situation where more and more children under five are being diagnosed with severe malnutrition,” Ms Wever said.

“The children who are malnourished need to receive medical attention in hospital.

“Treatment for severe malnutrition takes one month using therapeutic milks and things like that so its important to get them assistance as soon as possible.

“If left untreated it can lead to infant mortality and long term physical and developmental issues.”

Accessing remote communities where children are suffering from famine and disease can often prove to be as difficult as survival in the third world.

“We have been monitoring this situation for some time and procuring those supplies but the level of the response is huge and a lot of those remote areas with highly vulnerable people are not being reached,” Ms Wever said.

“Governments, the UN and aid agencies are actively working to get those supplies out.

“But it’s not just about having those supplies but also about reaching those communities.”

The El Nino has wreaked havoc on the lives of Africa’s most vulnerable children since it was declared in May last year and developed into the most significant and largest of its kind for nearly two decades, ranking alongside those in 1997-98 and 1982-83

The El Nino is a severe weather event caused by warmer sea temperatures in the Pacific, sucking warm, moist air over North America while leaving southern Africa and Australia hot and dry.

Ms Wever said droughts had destroyed crops and dried up water reserves in some areas and in others, floods had displaced entire communities and also ruined crops.

A baby is weighed is in Ethiopia. Southern and eastern African countries are in crisis with at least one million children dying and millions more suffering acute malnourishment as a result of droughts and floods caused by the El Niño, according to UNICEF. Picture: UNICEFSource:Supplied

“It’s had huge impacts in terms of flooding and drought where delayed rains from last year have caused widespread food shortages particularly in Zimbabwe and Lesotho,” she said.

“These are countries where levels of nutrition are already problematic.

“These people already live in some of the poorest countries in the world with very few resources.

“They don’t have reserves to draw on in times of crises.”

Ms Wever said most people living in affected third world Africa countries and towns lived in “simple huts with one room and no piped water to the house”.

“The droughts mean children are walking longer distances to collect water or resorting to using unsafe water,” she said.

“These young children impacted by the drought are experiencing extreme hunger, lack of water, which creates profound stress for children and also causes outbreaks of Malaria and Cholera because of the lack of access to clean drinking water,” Ms Wever said.

Southern and eastern African countries are in crisis with at least one million children dying and millions more suffering acute malnourishment as a result of droughts and floods caused by the El Niño, according to UNICEF. Food sources, including cattle, are also starving. Picture: UNICEFSource:Supplied

Ms Wever said the impacts of the El Niño were widespread across Africa, affecting an estimated 50 million people.

In Ethiopia, the number of people in need of food assistance is expected to increase from over 10 million to 18 million by the end of 2016.

“We know that things are going to get worse in terms of the impact we’re seeing because of the late rain,” she said.

“(How bad it will get) depends on whether the drought lasts a whole season or if rainfall comes in at the end of the season and allows some crops to grow.”

But for many areas the damage is already done as the affected communities become increasingly reliant on food and water aid.

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs has estimated it will take affected communities approximately two years to recover from El Niño exacerbated drought, if agricultural conditions improve in the latter half of this year.

Facts from UNICEF on the impact of El Niño on children in southern and eastern Africa:

· In Ethiopia, two seasons of failed rains mean that near on six million children currently require food assistance, with school absenteeism increasing as children are forced to walk greater distances in search of water;

· In Somalia, more than two thirds of those in urgent need of assistance are displaced populations;

· In Lesotho, one quarter of the population are affected. This aggravates grave circumstances for a country in which 34 per cent of children are orphans, 57 per cent of people live below the poverty line, and almost one in four adults live with HIV/Aids;

· In Zimbabwe, an estimated 2.8 million people are facing food and nutrition insecurity. The drought situation has resulted in reduced water yields from the few functioning boreholes exacerbating the risk to waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoea and cholera;

· Malawi is facing the worst food crisis in nine years, with 2.8 million people (more than 15 per cent of the population) at risk of hunger; cases of severe acute malnutrition have just jumped by 100 per cent in just two months, from December 2015 to January 2016;

· In Angola, an estimated 1.4 million people are affected by extreme weather conditions and 800,000 people are facing food insecurity, mainly in the semi-arid southern provinces.

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